> Puppet Tom wrote me some time ago to let me know of the beating he gave Friendster founder Jon Abrams, who interrupted his very first vlog post.

Here's a link to ALL of Puppet Tom's films (and some other videos too).

I believe he originally contacted me, appropriately, through MySpace. Here's Puppet Tom's MySpace profile.

And here's Real Tom's profile page. That's the guy who actually started MySpace, who Puppet Tom's a parody of.

As I build out my CGM creative agency I decided it would make sense to start asking some questions and investigate these YouTube creatives, and what drives them in their work.

My interview with Puppet Tom creative group (who I think wishes to remain anonymous) Train of Thought is the first in a series of pieces striving to understand this roiling, thrashing mess of creativity that's emerging in online, "user generated??" video.

Big thanks to Train of Thought! And check out Puppet Tom's interview in Valley Wag too.

making low budget video - tools you use, what's the process like from scripting to puppet design to shooting to editing; how long does it take.

We use a Sony Digital MiniDV HandiCam, Vegas Movie Studio for editing on a Dell and a five-armed lamp from Target. We’d like to get a new camera that can better handle different lighting situations.

My fellow Train of Thought member Ryan Miller does all the editing/filming.

The process varies. Ryan and I will kick around ideas all week and meet up on Sunday for dinner and flesh out those ideas. We’ll create a script then go shoot it.

Depending on the complexity of the sketch it can take 3-6 hours.

monetization thoughts (is publishing your work now a means of getting people to buy shirts, come to shows, and possibly get you gigs, or do you see yourselves ever SELLING any of your video work?)

Well, even YouTube is working on new ad platforms to monetize their vids. It’s tough to do.

Train of Thought is opening our 5th show in the Fall – a best of show – and we’ll definitely get Puppet Tom included somehow.

If an opportunity to sell our work or be hired to create sketches for someone arose we’d definitely look into it.

your personal background, how that lead to what you're doing now

My background is in marketing and online advertising. I always knew I wanted to write comedy and perform but I felt my college education was better used getting a degree that more applicable in the marketplace.

As a result my online marketing experience has given Train of Thought a head start on leveraging new technologies to expand our audience base: MySpace / Vodcasting / Viral Net Video.

A lot of comedy groups specialize in being funny but I really believe that Train of Thought’s core competency has moved beyond just putting up funny sketch comedy shows.

I think it’s creating great original comedy while leveraging next generation technology and media to reach a whole new audience. No one is doing the things we’re doing and I’m really proud of that.

We’re doing something new and doing it well.

what is your current profession?

I’m a Search Engine Marketing Manager (that’s why I read your blog every morning!). I’ve been doing search marketing since 1999.

where you see online video going (what you're excited about, how you think this will affect mainstream television)

I’m excited about the fact the last thing holding viral video back – bandwidth – is no longer an issue. If you had a viral smash you were essentially punished by huge bandwidth and hosting costs. But now Google/YouTube/MySpace pay for that.

My big concern is TV networks will do to viral video what the record industry did to Napster – take years to sue it into the ground then build it up again.

People were ready to buy digital music online in 1999 and we had to wait four years to do it. I hope networks support this new medium because it can give them more exposure and brand recognition then any form of advertising. Look at the ‘Lazy Sunday’ sketch from SNL – it exploded! It was everywhere.

It gave SNL massive street cred and word of mouth and what did NBC do? They sued and C&D’d it to have it taken off the viral sites and then put it up on their own site.

But the power doesn’t come from putting up a Quicktime video on NBC.com. It comes from empowering users to take the initiative to spread your products on their own.

There’s no way any company can match the distribution power of thousands of people motivated by the love of the product. I love it when I go to someone’s MySpace and they’ve put up a Puppet Tom video or a Train of Thought sketch.

For the life of me I can’t figure out why NBC doesn’t have a Digital SNL Team that creates royalty free sketches for the Internet. The same goes for MadTV.

with whom and where are you watching online videos

I’ve been so busy making vids with Ryan for Train of Thought I haven’t had time to explore much of the new ‘sharing’ tools on YouTube (it’s on my list). We’ve been promoting our work on YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, you know, the usual suspects. We’re doing other things too.

how are you so clever about MySpace and your ribbings of the folks in the industry

Comedy is cultural and with over 80 million users MySpace has its own culture. Comedians/writers are observers by nature. It’s just seeing what’s there – the things people see everyday and tune out.

When we came up with the idea to do MySpace specific material the question we had was ‘What is MySpace?’ I was thinking that as I was surfing MySpace and saw Tom in someone’s Top 8 and realized I had my answer!

is the puppet tom a response to News Corps' buy out, insinuating that Tom is little more than a puppet now...

Sorry. No story there. Ryan had a bunch of puppets from a previous improv show we did and we threw a white tee on one and *poof* there was Puppet Tom.

In fact the goal with Puppet Tom is he is always positive about MySpace. As a comic it’s easy to take the negative path (“your profile sucks!” and so forth). It’s an easy laugh.

But when you’re positive the audience is completely blown away. They don’t expect it. It’s harder to write but the pay off is so much bigger.

Puppet Tom loves MySpace, its employees and, most of all, its users. He’s always excited about something MySpace related.

how did you get your start in puppetry?

Ryan really got into it and I took some classes with him. He’s the real puppeteer between us. He always tells me that I give the best parts of our sketch comedy shows to the other cast members so I took the role of PT.

Ryan directs the sketches and plays Puppet Tom’s off camera friend Chris which is a reference to the other MySpace co-Founder Chris DeWolfe. I don’t think anyone gets that though.

He’s also made puppet appearances as Patches the Monkey and Entrepreneur, and Friendster founder, Jon Abrams.

(By the way, Abrams bookmarked his puppet beatdown on YouTube. I love that.)

why puppets instead of flash video or something?

Because we know puppets and don’t know jack about Flash. ;)

what is the overall intention behind making the puppet tom videos? What are your goals with the project?

Goals? Intention? Our intentions are two fold: To innovate and entertain. Puppet Tom helps us do both.

is MySpace or YouTube better for your purposes?

Right now YouTube is great because it’s bigger and thus more viral. Everyone knows how to spread a YouTube vid. MySpace Video is great too – particularly the quality. The bottom line however is Puppet Tom is a team puppet. We use MySpace Vids whenever possible but still upload his vlogs to the other sites too.

who are your favorites in online video publishing right now? who are you watching the most?

Some of our friends are making videos now and I think that’s great. But like I said, Ryan and I are so busy making these videos we don’t have too much time to follow others work.